Olympus OM-! prismfoam issue

[ksa66]

Dont trust internet or yuotube! My Olympus OM-1 nr:1104398 had no foam in it!
Had to superglue the thing to get it opened. Not fun! Much work for nothing!

 

[Sirius Glass]

Maybe next time you will check out www.keh.com. Easy returns.

Exactly how does one "Had to superglue the thing to get it opened."??

 

[Ricardo Miranda]

Hello!

Apart from not understanding how the use of superglue has anything to do whit opening a camera, there isn't anything wrong with Internet or You Tube once you know from the original sources the reality:
Some OM-1 didn't have foam, some had. Also many had their foam removed years ago by repairers when the original foam deteriorated.
They don't actually need the foam. You just need a bit more care when metering with the Sun behind you.

This site will tell you more: http://olympus.dementix.org/

As someone here recently advised me, I also make my advise to you to read very well that site, including the original repair manual, the Craftsman article and all articles about the -1 and -2.
You'll learned a lot from that, including how actually "the thing" opens.
Have a good read.

 

[Jerevan]

Next time you try to repair something ... read up, ask a lot of questions, think a bit first ... then do something.

John Hermanson at http://www.zuiko.com/ is also well worth a read.

 

[thuggins]

You just need a bit more care when metering with the Sun behind you.

Your points to the original posters nonsense are all valid. But I do think your metering comment is worth a discussion. I have noticed that having the sun behind you can throw off the OM's meter, but I believe this is due to light coming in thru the viewfinder and not the lack of the foam. The are a couple of reasons for this conclusion. First, as we all know, Oly stopped using the foam so they must have felt that its absence did not cause problems. Second, as I recall the problem does not occur when the eyecup is in place.

Apart from the ability to place a corrector lens in the eyecup mount (which is what I use it for), there really isn't any other real use for the eyecup. Especially since you don't actually need the cup part to hold a corrector lens.

 

[ksa66]

Superglue on winding knob to get it off!
Then take care and dont just put a screwdriver on rewind shaft to get it off. It will bend or in worst case break it.
The hole story whith all drawbacks is not usually there on yuotube and internet! No real camtech there, 100% amateurs only!
Better than nothing and just camera stuff. I dont care much! Just want my beer now!

 

[sagai]

Ksa66 ... actually I agree with you!
There is a bit of over agonising going on for this prisms foam stuff.
Put it simple ... buy the body if there is no visible issue in the viewfinder, use it, use it and again us it, and if over the time some weird things levitating in the viewfinder that utterly disturbs you, buy another one.
Repair costs and risks does not justify the benefit of it.
I am talking of experience too.

 

[ksa66]

yea only love

 

[sagai]

We are for shooting on films rather than archiving cameras for eternity.
If all cameras will gone, we still have a chance to fabricate our own pinhole camera

 

[Xmas]

The OP gets attaboy for getting it apart and back together.

But there is no reason to strip unless you can see a problem at the bottom of the image.

If you remove the damaged silvering the finder image will be like new again.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_internal_reflection

The silvering makes the prism easy to mount and less prone to dust etc.

Ricardos point was the light entering view finder and is generic to cameras with cells in the prism some have shutters for the finder eyepiece some like the F2 you can use a thumb but wearing floppy sun hat nearly as effective.

 

[wblynch]

We may think there are millions of film cameras that we can afford to destroy several in our ham fisted attempts at repair.

But it's only been a decade or two since they stopped making them and there's no telling how many were simple thrown in the trash.

Time to start protecting and preserving what's left. It's better to leave one alone than kill it trying to "fix" it.

 

[sagai]

My back up at the line of lot more is an Exa 1a that inherently designed to last fkcing forever though

 

[thuggins]

If you remove the damaged silvering the finder image will be like new again.

I have done both the replacement and the repair of the prism. The repair is definitely the way to go. Just remove all the decomposed foam and the dissolved silvering, then feather the edge of the good silvering with toothpaste or Simichrome. The missing silvering will not be visible thru the viewfinder.